Nonlinear vibration of moderately thick laminated beams using finite element method

A finite element model is developed to study the large-amplitude free vibrations of generally-layered laminated composite beams. The Poisson effect, which is often neglected, is included in the laminated beam constitutive equation. The large deformation is accounted for by using von Karman strains and the transverse shear deformation is incorporated using a higher order theory. The beam element has eight degrees of freedom with the inplane displacement, transverse displacement, bending slope and bending rotation as the variables at each node. The direct iteration method is used to solve the nonlinear equations which are evaluated at the point of reversal of motion. The influence of boundary conditions, beam geometries, Poisson effect, and ply orientations on the nonlinear frequencies and mode shapes are demonstrated.     

Statistical energy analysis by finite elements for middle frequency vibration

Statistical energy analysis (SEA) is commonly used in industry to predict high-frequency vibrational response of structures. Since only local modes are used in SEA, only high-frequency responses can be predicted. This study extends SEA to the middle-frequency region by additionally using global modes. Methods using impedance matrices that can be found by NASTRAN are developed. Then the results are post processed to determine coupling loss factors.     

A lumped mass finite element method for vibration analysis of elastic plate-plate structures

The fully discrete lumped mass finite element method is proposed for vibration analysis of elastic plate-plate structures. In the space directions, the longitudinal displacements on plates are discretized by conforming linear elements, and the transverse displacements are discretized by the Morley element. By means of the second order central difference for discretizing the time derivative and the technique of lumped masses, a fully discrete lumped mass finite element method is obtained, and two approaches to choosing the initial functions are also introduced. The error analysis for the method in the energy norm is established, and some numerical examples are included to validate the theoretical analysis.     

Finite element method for the vibration of cracked beams with varying cross section

Vibration analysis of cracked beams having linearly varying cross-sections both in thickness and width was investigated. A computer program using the finite element method has been written to find the dynamical characteristics (natural frequencies and mode shapes) of the cracked beam. The cracked section in the beam has been modeled by a massless spring whose flexibility depens on the local flexibility induced by the crack. The stiffness of spring has been derived from the linear elastic fracture mechanics theory as the inverse of the compliance matrix calculated using stress intensity factors and strain energy release rate expression. Some examples have been given to explain the proposed method and investigate the effects of the depth and location of cracks on the natural frequencies and mode shapes. The results of current study and those in the literature are compared and good agreements have been found. Consequently it is showed that proposed method is reliable and simple. (© 2015 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

An analysis of the finite element method for natural convection problems

We derive stability properties and error estimates for the finite element method when used to approximate heat flow in a fluid enclosed by a solid medium. The coupled Navier Stokes system involves the Boussinesq equations in the fluid-filled cavity linked through an interface with heat conduction in the solid enclosing the fluid. As we assume no extra regularity then can be shown to hold under mild restriction on the data (at least over a small time interval in R ³), we focus primarily on low order finite element spaces.     

An analysis of a mixed finite element method for the Navier-Stokes equations

Summary A simple mixed finite element method is developed to solve the steady state, incompressible Navier-Stokes equations in a neighborhood of an isolated—but not necessarily unique—solution. Convergence is established under very mild restrictions on the triangulation, and, when the solution is sufficiently smooth, optimal error bounds are obtained.     

An algebraic multigrid method for finite element discretizations with edge elements

This paper presents an algebraic multigrid method for the efficient solution of the linear system arising from a finite element discretization of variational problems in H₀(curl,Ω). The finite element spaces are generated by Nédélec's edge elements. A coarsening technique is presented, which allows the construction of suitable coarse finite element spaces, corresponding transfer operators and appropriate smoothers. The prolongation operator is designed such that coarse grid kernel functions of the curl‐operator are mapped to fine grid kernel functions. Furthermore, coarse grid kernel functions are ‘discrete’ gradients. The smoothers proposed by Hiptmair and Arnold, Falk and Winther are directly used in the algebraic framework. Numerical studies are presented for 3D problems to show the high efficiency of the proposed technique. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An adaptive finite element method with asymptotic saturation for eigenvalue problems

This paper discusses adaptive finite element methods for the solution of elliptic eigenvalue problems associated with partial differential operators. An adaptive method based on nodal-patch refinement leads to an asymptotic error reduction property for the computed sequence of simple eigenvalues and eigenfunctions. This justifies the use of the proven saturation property for a class of reliable and efficient hierarchical a posteriori error estimators. Numerical experiments confirm that the saturation property is present even for very coarse meshes for many examples; in other cases the smallness assumption on the initial mesh may be severe.     

A finite element frequency domain method for 2D photonic crystals

In this paper we propose a new finite element frequency domain (FEFD) method to compute the band spectra of 2D photonic crystals without impurities. Exploiting periodicity to identify discretization points differing by a period, it increases the effectiveness of the algorithm and reduces significantly its computational complexity. The results of an extensive experimentation indicate that our method offers an effective alternative to the most quoted methods in the literature.     

A sparse finite element method with high accuracy Part I

Summary. In this paper, we develop and analyze a new finite element method called the sparse finite element method for second order elliptic problems. This method involves much fewer degrees of freedom than the standard finite element method. We show nevertheless that such a sparse finite element method still possesses the superconvergence and other high accuracy properties same as those of the standard finite element method. The main technique in our analysis is the use of some integral identities. Received October 1, 1995 / Revised version received August 23, 1999 / Published online February 5, 2001     

Plane finite element for static and free vibration analysis of sandwich plates

Conclusions Triangular sandwich finite elements (MPLW30) with 30 DOF have been developed for the static and free vibration analysis of sandwich plates with thin faces and low core shear modules. The results of numerical examples presented here demonstrate the accuracy and suitability of the formulations for the analysis of sandwich plates with k_H > 25 and k_E > 200.Published in Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, Vol. 30, No. 2, pp 238–248, March–April, 1994.     

An adaptive finite element method for singular parabolic equations

Summary. In this paper we consider additive Schwarz-type iteration methods for saddle point problems as smoothers in a multigrid method. Each iteration step of the additive Schwarz method requires the solutions of several small local saddle point problems. This method can be viewed as an additive version of a (multiplicative) Vanka-type iteration, well-known as a smoother for multigrid methods in computational fluid dynamics. It is shown that, under suitable conditions, the iteration can be interpreted as a symmetric inexact Uzawa method. In the case of symmetric saddle point problems the smoothing property, an important part in a multigrid convergence proof, is analyzed for symmetric inexact Uzawa methods including the special case of the additive Schwarz-type iterations. As an example the theory is applied to the Crouzeix-Raviart mixed finite element for the Stokes equations and some numerical experiments are presented. Mathematics Subject Classification (1991):65N22, 65F10, 65N30Supported by the Austrian Science Foundation (FWF) under the grant SFB F013}\and Walter Zulehner     

A mixed differential quadrature and finite element free vibration and buckling analysis of thick beams on two-parameter elastic foundations

As a first endeavor, a mixed differential quadrature (DQ) and finite element (FE) method for boundary value structural problems in the context of free vibration and buckling analysis of thick beams supported on two-parameter elastic foundations is presented. The formulations are based on the two-dimensional theory of elasticity. The problem domain along axial direction is discretized using finite elements. The resulting system of equations and the related boundary conditions are discretized in the thickness direction and in strong-form using DQM. The method benefits from low computational efforts of the DQ in conjunction with the effectiveness of the FE method in general geometry and systematic boundary treatment resulting in highly accurate and fast convergence behavior solution. The boundary conditions at the top and bottom surface of the beams are implemented accurately. The presented formulations provide an effective analysis tool for beams free of shear locking. Comparisons are made with results from elasticity solutions as well as higher-order beam theory.     

An improved GPS method with a new pseudo-peripheral nodes finder in finite element analysis

Finding pseudo-peripheral nodes with the largest eccentricity is important in matrix bandwidth and profile reduction algorithms in finite element analysis. A heuristic parameter, called the “width-depth ratio” and denoted by κ, is presented for finding the pseudo-peripheral nodes with larger pseudo-diameter compared with the GPS (Gibbs-Poole-Stockmeyer) pseudo-peripheral nodes finder. A novel nodes renumbering algorithm is thus developed by using our nodes finder based on GPS method. Simulations show that proposed nodes finder is reliable and effective in locating the proper pseudo-peripheral nodes with larger pseudo-diameters. A shielded microstrip line is given as an example to testify the ability of the proposed algorithm in application. The results, including time, pseudo-diameter, bandwidths and profiles, all indicate that our method is more competitive than GPS algorithm to be used as the nodes renumbering algorithm.     

An optimized finite element method for the analysis of 3D acoustic cavities with impedance boundary conditions

Numerical approaches studying the reduction of dispersion error for acoustic problems so far have focused on the models without impedance. Whereas, the practical acoustic problems usually involve impedance. This situation indicates that it is essential to study the numerical methods by taking into account the influence of impedance. In this work, an optimized finite element method is introduced to solve the three-dimensional steady-state acoustic problems with impedance. This technique resorts to heuristic optimization techniques to determine the integration points locations in elements. It develops a strategy to optimize the integration points locations, and makes use of adaptive genetic algorithm to achieve the best integration points locations for the construction of element matrix. By using the proposed method, a three-dimensional acoustic tube model with impedance is investigated, and the dispersion error, accuracy, convergence and efficiency of solutions are all compared to those of some existing numerical methods and reference solutions. Simultaneously, two practical cavity models are studied to verify the effectiveness and strongpoints of the proposed method as compared to existing numerical methods. Hence, the proposed method can be more widely applied to solve practical acoustic problems, yielding more accurate solutions.     

An alternative alpha finite element method with discrete shear gap technique for analysis of laminated composite plates

This paper presents an alternative alpha finite element method using triangular meshes (AαFEM) for static, free vibration and buckling analyses of laminated composite plates. In the AαFEM, an assumed strain field is carefully constructed by combining compatible strains and additional strains with an adjustable parameter α which can produce an effectively softer stiffness formulation compared to the linear triangular element. The stiffness matrices are obtained based on the strain smoothing technique over the smoothing domains and the constant strains on triangular sub-domains associated with the nodes of the elements. The discrete shear gap (DSG) method is incorporated into the AαFEM to eliminate transverse shear locking and an improved triangular element termed as AαDSG3 is proposed. Several numerical examples are then given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the AαDSG3.